Frances

Wait, people actually asked "why do you want to know?" when you asked lore questions? That's kinda dumb. My intent was never to dumb down the lore, but to separate the complicated and less important background info from the most crucial one every player should know (not saying Diona taxonomy isn't cool, but it's not the most important thing people will need to know if they want to play as one). However, a problem you might run into is that a lot of this info, well, it's very specific. The more technical the question, the more unlikely it is someone has already answered it, or that someone has the ability to answer it. I know some people are really into certain things (like Rusty with astronomic data for planets, or Erik Tiber for economy), but you might simply run into the problem that there's no one is really sure how to answer your question. What happens at that point? Do we let users improvise on these minor, unanswered questions, as it doesn't really create much harm? Or do we try to come to a consensus through lore question threads, then canonize whatever comes out of them?

I just don't see how any other gamemode will be voted in besides secret or extended. People default to secret or extended depending on if they want action or not. But although a few hopefuls might start voting for another gamemode, the sole reason why any other gamemode gets picked is because other people see the specific mode has gotten a few votes already, and they coordinate into voting it higher. You would never see modes such as nuke, cult, wizard or mutiny get picked through blind voting, simply because people wouldn't know which to vote for.

There's only one very specific scenario I could see for it, which is one where a round went terribly badly (i.e. wizard fireballed themselves + teleported into the AI core and got shot to death 10 mins in), there are no mods on, people would rather start another round than play 2 hours of extended, and despite that, would rather transfer than simply do a restart vote. Yeahhhhhhhh. So. I don't know why it's not hardlocked either. Probably because no one got around to doing it yet.

Well, since this is probably going to turn into a discussion about chair-RP (there's not much else to talk about), I don't mind chair-RPers. Especially since they don't tend to really take up job slots, by nature. You always have a few people talking in medical, but that's because medical is boring until people start to die. Same goes for a lot of jobs, and when I see chair-RP, it tends to happen at the bar, between a diverse cast of crewmembers, ensuring no department gets effectively crippled, gameplay-wise. The only issue has been with people who 1. Actively refuse to carry out their duties 2. Get upset when they get caught in crossfire from an antag, or join a round with antags, then try to avoid antags by locking themselves away in a little room before the action even hits But I haven't seen either happen in a long time. I'm also not on staff anymore, so I get less chances to aghost around the station (well, I don't. I can't actually do that.) but I don't think that is as problematic as it used to be. The clarification on ERP rules (as well as our repeated clownings) probably helped too, because I seem to find the occasional engineer couple in maintenance far less often than I used to. Edit: I've also never had that issue of "being excluded due to chair RP". Social rejection is a real-life dynamic, and it is perfectly natural for people to struggle at least somewhat with integrating themselves with station groups/cliques, if they're brand new. Again, people refusing to do their jobs/cooperate are the problem here, not people acting awkward because you just dropped into their conversation at the bar (though feel free to annoy the fuck out of them, if you feel so inclined).

Well, people will be merciless sometimes. If you want to fight for something you believe in, you're better off developing a thick skin. Anyway, I remember you. Not sure if you remember me, but I've never had issues with seeing you around (though I might've bandwagoned a bit on the "assistants that don't assist" hate train. Though they really should assist.) There have been two major shifts in Aurora since around/before the time you left. The first was a marked focus away from chair-RP, and towards more action-RP. Action-RP is totally valid. You can perfectly have a Heavy-RP server, that has nuke rounds where people shoot each other to shit. And they roleplay around that, too. But it's obviously not the 24/7 extended kind of server (which is equally valid, but about something else). And Aurora has become about the former, not the latter. It's a shame for some, and has caused others to quit, although I still tend to find time to get some chair-RP in whenever I need. But I can tell you the server is currently the very same you wanted to leave, in that aspect. The second shift, however, might be of more interest to you. I think people are relatively more tolerant of players carving their own paths away from the preset ideas of "ideal RP". There is a certain laissez-faire I am glad to see again, though not to an abusive extent. People are roleplaying fancier, quirkier characters, creating individuals and situations that wouldn't generally be seen in a "100% ordinary office life simulator", but still add a lot of fun to the game (we had a Tajaran mafia for a while, can you believe that?) I don't think someone coming onto the station with a non-debilitating mental illness would get crucified anymore, because frankly, who gives a shit? So yeah, idk. Chair-RP isn't really getting hated on, but antags are running amok too, so you have to watch out for them. I think I'm very happy with the way the server has been doing. People are positive about most things, and in general, there is an excellent balance of most facets of Heavy-RP in what we're seeing. Of course, if you're preferring one of the extremes, this might not be your cup of tea.

That'd basically turn the voting system into a secret/extended switch. Just to make things clear. Not saying whether this is good or bad, but I want everyone to be sure of what we're agreeing/disagreeing on.

A big part of voting for a singular gamemode is being able to see you're coordinating your votes with other people in an attempt to achieve something. If votes are hidden, the only roundtypes that will ever get selected anymore will be extended and secret.

I never knew Seven Ghost was female. Err, that's not really related. Anyway, in the hope of shedding some light on this thread (since people will post and speculate anyway), I believe Seven was tempbanned for logging out mid-something yesterday. She actually contacted me over pager, trying to explain the situation - her net crashed due to a power outage, and by the time she came back she had been banned for leaving the round during what I'm assuming was an arrest, antag, or admin-related incident. As I'm no longer on staff, I told her to submit an unban request, and since it's not really fair that she'd get to miss out on the night's rounds because of what was essentially a miscommunication, I offered I could ahelp on her behalf and try to get in touch with the active mods to inform them of the situation. That's where we parted. As I never saw an unban request (or staff complaint) after that, I'm assuming Seven and the staff never succeeded at getting in contact after that.

Gosh, I remember my English used to be awful when I started posting on internet forums. And somehow, people didn't really care. Like, they could obviously tell I wasn't a native speaker, but I never got any flak about it, because I tried my best to get my point across, and the people I was with were nice and understanding. (As well as a little carefree, which helps.) It might be weird to say it like this, but I was surprised to find PoZe is a really decent guy. (Guy, I think? Correct me if I'm wrong.) I didn't pay much attention to him before, because I tend to have this negative image that people who are less fluent in English = people who are less interested in roleplaying seriously, but PoZe proved me wrong, as he's quite personable, and to my surprise, I've been able to recognize some of his characters (Skyline, Leonardo Mull) as good additions to the station crew I enjoy seeing around. Skull posting on an application usually means that he is at least considering giving that person a trial (in my experience), and this is one I'd really like to see. For PoZe, as a previous headmin of another server, I'm sure you understand the amount of talking, diplomacy and communication staff have to engage in, even more so on a heavy-RP server (since there's more issues to deal with). I'm impressed that you're ready to make this application, and honestly wish you the best. This might be a cool opportunity to perfect your English further, too, if you get accepted. (And as you highlighted before, I do like to joke a lot, but I'm being 100% sincere here. So good luck!)

Yes! Somebody for deadhour, finally! You can pretty much expect to be worshipped around here V vV

Thinking about it, I should try to clarify a little my stance on this. I don't think that what 1138 did was against the rules, but I think it was sort of poor RP, and this thread is justified in existing as a player complaint (though I think it should be one that we should all learn from, not try to punish someone for). What Sue said is right. If you made an absolutely ridiculous threat (like say "I will kill anyone who farts", then proceed to kill anyone who farts), it'd be shitty. And generally. the more vague and widely interpreted the threat is, the shittier. And while the threat here wasn't in the [ridiculous] levels of bad, I still think, after reflection, that placing yourself in a situation where you shoot on sight anyone who rides the outpost shuttle, well, it's sorta not-ideal. It makes sense ICly. But from an OOC perspective, is this a situation you want to create? You gain very little from it, as opposed to, let's say, holing up in the room past the airlock, and shooting anyone who walks through the airlock room. That's what I would've probably done, as it carries the same effective result (prevents anyone from going to the outpost, and keeps your position safe while punishing those trying to compromise it), but gives people a chance to explain themselves, or back off if they were unaware of the threat. It basically gives everyone a lot more freedom from a storytelling perspective, without taking anything away from you, and so I don't really understand anymore why a person needs to be shot on sight the literal instant they ride the shuttle. Decent idea, poor execution. (Ha. That's a pun. About dying.)

Let's look at the specific situation for that. 1138 wasn't out to find somebody to kill - he isolated himself at the research outpost, and announced he'd shoot anyone who would try to reach him. Is this a ridiculous threat to make? Keep in mind reaction fire in this case can be somewhat compared to holding a group of unarmed civilians hostage in a room, on the floor, and shooting one the moment they begin to move. You don't really have the time to judge whether the person acting has hostile intentions or not, but if they do (such as said civilian being a trained NRA member intent on pulling a gun), you'd be outright fucked unless you react right away.

I agree with Jamini. There are several other ways 1138 could have handled the situation, but what he did (giving out a clear threat, then following on that threat, with reason), was not rule-breaking, as far as I can see.

I can't say I understand completely why you're leaving. I get that sometimes we simply lose interest about a thing we used to feel passionate about, but I feel like this community has generally been receptive to change, and that if pushing properly and with the right intent, it is possible to bring about major shifts in the way the server handles things. I've never gotten to know you personally, or even meet you in game, but I always appreciated your ideas and the energy with which you pushed them. I will be sad to see you go.

Good point. However, I actually think that NT's interests have some very clear limit, and as long as staff/events/lore keeps playing NT as an affably evil corporation, it would be pretty easy for a NT higher-up to order a captain to sacrifice the station or some of its personnel for the "greater good of NanoTrasen as a whole". Some orders, like being asked to do everything the station humanly can to keep a changeling alive (so they can be studied), are very hard to argue against from a "look out for NT's interests" perspective. And there is no moral event horizon possible here; characters are forced to protect NanoTrasen to the end, without a chance to change their mind, or openly rebel against the corporation. Yes, captains/HoSes are still allowed some leeway in how they RP things (Drew justified the very law-breaking beating of Jason Sanders by his HoS as "the HoS looking out for the better interests of the station against the inefficiency of higher-ups"), and overall it is not an irredeemably strong argument, but the counterpoint to that is that I don't exactly see why someone would be for loyalty implants. What is their OOC purpose? To make HoS and captain players weigh their actions before committing them? This is something they should already be doing.

I do not think a lot of HoSes put that much thought into their situation (trying to stay out of harm's way to remain effective), and the implants only work as far as the specific HoS/Captain/player believes they are protecting NT's interests. A good HoS or captain player should be looking out for NanoTrasen's interests implant or not, because they realistically wouldn't have been promoted to that position otherwise. What the implant does is limit these cool moments where captains/HoS might willingly choose to disobey orders due to personal convictions and beliefs, and it takes out a lot of potential for "human vs corporate" drama as the people in charge are basically forced to act like mindless drones through an edgy brainwashing system. As for the IAAs, I threw them in because they're worth the discussion too, but I'm perfectly fine with them keeping the implants. Most of their role was built around being cold, obedient, and putting full priority in ensuring NT rules are being enforced, while the captain and HoS roles are not so much about that.

I believe historically, the main reason why loyalty implants exist in these roles is to make them immune to flash-nonRP-rev conversions, as well as (?) ensuring the most trusted and powerful roles cannot by default become traitors (I might be wrong here). They were given another Heavy-RP purpose, which is to serve as a hard limit to prevent these roles from acting in certain un-leaderly or un-corporate ways. However, I've lately been wondering exactly how much of a boon this limit is to the general health of the server, in comparison to how much it can stifle the choices the people in these roles can take. For example, there's a few captains and HoSes that lost their cool in very awesome and justified ways, only to have player complaints made about them because "it doesn't respect their loyalty implant", even if the roleplay they brought to the round was universally accepted as fun (save for the part where it "broke the lore/their character"). Aren't the sort of behaviors loyalty implants trying to prevent behaviors that are already examined and discouraged by the higher RP standards that heads (and IAAs) are held up to? If so, doesn't that make loyalty implants a superfluous and restrictive limit we might be better doing away with?

Jamini joined in mid-feb, though, and he's already got a third of your posts. If your respective posting metrics maintain themselves consistently, he is predicted to overcome your post count by January 4, 2017,

Well, it was just a vague feeling I had, but (again, *do* call me out if I'm wrong here), I'm getting the impression you're being fairly defensive about this. Which again, I could understand, but it sorta goes with the whole laid-back attitude. I was actually reminded just now that you've made mod apps before, and we had a few discussions about them - with you ragequitting/abandoning the latest one, in a way that left a rather sour taste in my mouth. You still seem to be relying on words and long posts as your main form of defense/action. And I think it's doing you a disservice. Case in point, the initial opinion I posted here was something akin to "well, he seems a little bit off as a mod to me, but I'd sure like to see him granted a trial so I can be proven wrong." There's nothing to really do after that. As much as I appreciate you explaining the little event that happened around the round voting thing a few days ago, if you truly feel confident of your abilities, then you should simply wait and let people take notice of your actions (after being given a reasonable chance to show off). Instead, I feel like a lot of what you do ends up coming off as stand-offish. It's a mix of tone and content. I don't think it'd be wrong to represent you as an "intense" person. And that intensity has gotten into the way of proper discourse, in the past. I've not seen you much in-game lately, however. So this might simply be a confirmation bias I'm perpetuating through old impressions, in which case I apologize for any offense I might have caused, and suggest you ignore my ramblings. I do still have a lot of catching up to do.

If I can try to explain it better (no guarantees I'll succeed, though), I'd say there is a certain intensity in your actions that's at times misplaced. I really don't know how to explain it better than that, because a lot of people get intense or passionate about things (I do, people like Cassie or Sue do), but I get the impression that, I don't know. Maybe it's the conflicts you make, maybe it's how you choose to approach it. But I get the sense that sometimes, talking to you, it's not apparent whether you're here to play a game and have fun with a bunch of other people, or if you want something else.

I find there's something odd about the way you face/handle issues, though I can't quite put my finger on what it is. Could I maybe say that I don't find you laid-back enough? I don't think it's terrible enough that you don't deserve a trial, btw.

Well, the amount of chairs is the same. So you could always move the rolling chair over to the couch if you had extra people?

There's only a few afaik. Two on the reception desk, one in surgery, and one in the CMO's office. I might give the treatment centre one as it's quite central to the department.

We're in a science-fiction universe. I don't think damage of types that would be uncommon/unnatural to us in the year 2015 constitutes something "special" or snowflakey by default. I don't know the specifics of radiation poisoning and everything related to lung damage/inhalers (perhaps some lore people would be willing to help you develop that), but if somebody told me they had to use an inhaler due to either asthma or damage from space dust, I wouldn't bat an eyelid. This seems like a decent application to me.

As I said in my application, I didn't feel like it was something I needed - I wanted my actions to be judged solely for what they ended up carrying out, and not for who I was as a person or due to any titles I might've had. Further than that, I also didn't want to be bothered by additional chats and logs when playing on the server. To be honest, though, being a regular player is fun. In some aspects, it's more fun than being staff, or even being recognized as ex-staff (though most people still know you've been around), because it gives me the possibility of doing some very silly things without getting the server in trouble (worst case people can't say "hey look at this retired admin doing a bunch of dumb stuff", and the staff could just ban me if needed haha). Obviously that's something I will (sadly) have to give up again if I rejoin staff, though I'm planning on saving myself plenty of time later on down the road for goofing around.